Hospital suspends tests after girl is wrongly given all-clear

A hospital trust has suspended tests for a fatal illness in children and launched an investigation after it wrongly gave a young girl the all-clear.

The Hampstead Trust stopped "sweat testing" for cystic fibrosis at the Royal Free Hospital after three-year-old Libby Pitman was misdiagnosed.

The hospital is contacting other parents of children who had the test carried on them to see if they have also received the wrong results. Libby's parents, among the two million people who carry a faulty gene that causes the incurable disease, said they had been through "hell and back" in their fight for answers.

Katie Fletcher and Peter Pitman, from West Hampstead, fought a two-year battle to discover why their eldest daughter kept suffering bouts of serious illness including pneumonia and was taking an ever-growing list of medication. They were eventually told in February - after two negative tests - that Libby had the deadly disease.

Miss Fletcher, 31, said she was desperate for other families whose children had been tested to be told quickly to prevent the problem "being swept under the carpet".

She and Mr Pitman, 44, who have a younger daughter Lottie, aged two, persuaded a paediatric specialist to carry out an initial sweat test on Libby in June last year after she was admitted to hospital for a second time with pneumonia. The test came back negative but after another bout of pneumonia the specialist did a second test and also took blood to be analysed.

The sweat test came back negative but the blood sample was positive.

The family was told scientists stood by their testing, so the specialist ordered another sweat test be carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

When that came back positive with a "tremendously high" reading at the end of March, the Royal Free finally took action. In a letter to the family, the consultant paediatrician offered "sincere apologies".

Miss Fletcher said: "I want people to contact me so that we ascertain exactly how many children have been affected and in what way. I would recommend that anyone who suspects their child might have it contact the Cystic Fibrosis Trust or have an independent test."

A Great Ormond Street biochemist is now reviewing the quality and effectiveness of sweat tests.